The present invention relates to I.S. (individual section) machines for forming bottles from gobs of molten glass and more specifically to a pushout mechanism, which will be used in each individual section.
Following the formation of a bottle in the blow station of a section of an I.S. machine, blow molds separate to release the formed bottle and a takeout device transfers the bottle to a deadplate where the bottle momentarily sits while it is cooled by air which flows up through holes in the deadplate. After it has been sufficiently cooled, a pushout mechanism pushes the bottle in a 90xc2x0 arc off of the deadplate onto a moving conveyor.
U.S Pat. Nos. 5,733,354 and 5,527,372 disclose a state of the art pushout mechanism. In the disclosed pushout mechanism, which includes an arm defining three pockets, three bottles are transferred from a deadplate to the moving conveyor. Each bottle is captured by an associated pocket, which has a rear wall or finger, and air is jetted from each of the three associated fingers to hold a bottle against each pocket. In operation, pressurized air is supplied to an air cylinder, to which the arm is attached, to advance the arm from a retracted position to an advanced position over the deadplate and this cylinder advance air is simultaneously and concurrently supplied to the conduits leading to openings in each finger which are designed to jet the air outwardly. When the pockets have been displaced to a location where the first bottle is located on the bottle centerline of the conveyor, the cylinder advance air (and hence the jetted air) is turned off. When the rotation of the pushout is completed, cylinder retract air is turned on to retract the arm to a remote position so that it can be rotated displaced back to its start position.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a pushout mechanism, which will provide the ability to better control the transfer of the bottle to the conveyor.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following portion of this specification ad from the accompanying drawings, which illustrate in accordance with the mandate of the patent statutes a presently preferred embodiment incorporating the principles of the invention.